Spiked Newsnight Savile story is joint winner of London Press Club scoop prize

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BBC Newsnight's spiked Jimmy Savile child abuse story was today named joint winner of the scoop of the year at the London Press Club.

Liz MacKean and Meirion Jones picked up the prize alongside freelance Miles Goslett, whose story was published in The Oldie magazine after being turned down by seven nationals, and Mark Williams-Thomas, who broke the story in the mainstream media for ITV.

MacKean said: “It goes to show that you can’t keep a good story down. It’s probably fair to say that BBC command and control would not be delighted by this award being given to Meirion and myself.

“Even though they’ve now got their heads back on, they've still failed to acknowledge that the BBC should have run this story. Congratulations to Mark Williams-Thomas and to Miles for eventually doing that.”

Mark Williams-Thomas paid tribute to the BBC journalists. He said: “These are two of the best journalists this country has. For them, the most important thing was for the truth to be out there.”